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New Gmail un-minimalistic homepage
- dm8 13y agoLooks like there is a pattern - New Google Analytics landing page - http://www.google.com/analytics/ http://www.google.com/analytics/ Or Google Hangouts landing page - http://www.google.com/hangouts/ http://www.google.com/hangouts/
- Andrex 13y agoIt's a marketing page. Would it be better to just have a login form like before? As long as Gmail itself remains minimalistic, what difference does a marketing page make?
- badclient 13y agoAs long as Gmail itself remains minimalistic Gmail stopped being minimalistic a while ago...
- Andrex 13y agoSee comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572206
- tty 13y ago>As long as Gmail itself remains minimalistic Unless you're using the basic HTML view for Gmail, I don't see how Gmail is minimalistic.
- lennel 13y agoIt got a bit better again, they dropped the top menu for calender, drive, plus etc into a non-modal popup.
- Andrex 13y agoCare to explain how Gmail _isn't_ minimalistic? Compared to native email apps with excessive amounts of panes, buttons, sorters, etc., Gmail is minimalistic nirvana. http://i.imgur.com/XiwAn8U.jpg http://i.imgur.com/XiwAn8U.jpg http://i.imgur.com/YSBK5us.jpg http://i.imgur.com/YSBK5us.jpg http://i.imgur.com/8Acgrn1.png http://i.imgur.com/8Acgrn1.png vs http://i.imgur.com/RMg8UPY.png http://i.imgur.com/RMg8UPY.png Hell, even compare Gmail today to how it used to look: http://i.imgur.com/fHQjL0n.png http://i.imgur.com/fHQjL0n.png The new Gmail's focus on whitespace, hiding buttons that don't do anything yet (until you check things of course), the new compose panel (with ultra-minimalistic controls and send to/from fields), Google's removal of the black bar, the auto-overflow for labels, lack of borders, lack of "containers," etc. etc. all convince me of Gmail's minimalism. Just about the only thing that isn't minimal about it anymore is the footer.
- tr4656 13y agoThis is really similar to what Google Apps have used for a few years now.
- DigitalSea 13y agoFor a while now Google have been aggressively pursuing a marketing first approach to their product offerings, this is no different. The very fact Google have sneakily implemented ads disguised as emails into Gmail is a sign that Google are no longer a minimalistic company. I think this is a case of someone making a big deal out of an obvious situation. Hardly an issue here.
- diziet 13y agoI would imagine they a/b tested this quite extensively and have data that smiling people's faces cause whatever metric they are measuring to be at a better point than a plain login page. It'd be interesting to see how much.
- djrobstep 13y agoI've noticed a quite a few landing pages going for the "large photo of generic smiling person" (usually female) concept in recent times. This page, healthcare.gov, basecamp.com, and many many others. Kind of amazing/sad (though not surprising) that your average human can be persuaded with this kind of gimmick.
- icebraining 13y agoWhy is it sad ? It's a display of empathy. If anything, it's sad that some companies abuse it, but even as far as such manipulations go, at least this one provokes positive feelings instead of preying on people's insecurities and fears.
- tikhonj 13y agoI always think of these things as security vulnerabilities. Right in your brain! And getting a patch out is... tricky.
- egeozcan 13y agoThat made me remember one of the earliest examples: http://www.teamviewer.com/ http://www.teamviewer.com/
- eminh 13y agoThere was a good write-up on that from 37signals http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-testing-part-3-final http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2991-behind-the-scenes-ab-tes...
- dylz 13y agoWhat's with the blogspam?
- nivla 13y agoIts not just Gmail, they started doing this with other products too. Whenever I access Google Analytics [1], even if I am already logged in, it takes me to a page with a huge picture of a person smiling where I am supposed to find a tiny button that says "Access Analytics" inorder to access my account. I can understand such marketing material for new visitors but why on earth would you force this on existing customers??? [1] http://analytics.google.com http://analytics.google.com
- jmduke 13y agoLogically speaking: existing customers are going to spend the cognitive effort to hunt for the button. There's a reason most companies don't A/B test login screens. (That's not to say that you shouldn't A/B test churn, but...)
- RealCasually 13y agoI thought it was related to my multiple accounts, so im glad to see I'm not crazy. I still have no idea how that woman relates to my analytics.
- _wmd 13y agoI've repeated this many times and it's never a popular idea, but here goes: it's because they retain UI/UX designers on permanent staff, when they likely have actual new work about one month in twelve, from what I gather. This isn't an attack on UI/UX people, it is only to suggest perhaps that industry would be better structured if everyone worked at agencies that recovered an employee's yearly salary in exchange for a month of their time. No pointless work generation that hurts the masses just to hit bonus targets.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- harrybr 13y agoI couldn't disagree more. UI/UX design sits at the intersection of business objectives and user behaviour (i.e. what the business wants / what the users want). The idea of iterating your UI one month a year is borderline suicidal. If you're calling it "pointless work generation that hurts the masses", there must be something dysfunctional about your past experiences with UI/UX design people / processes in the organisations you've worked in.
- pycassa 13y agoAfter moving to outlook.com, The only thing I missed is that after I signing out of it, it takes me to a landing page with a "sign in" button and some advertisement with people smiling, instead of login screen. looks like gmail is getting worse instead of outlook getting better in this particular aspect.